Pages

Monday, April 30, 2012

The space industry is the place to be for anyone interested in an exciting fun filled career. No, Milton is not taking applications at this time. But he promises to give a boost to those looking for a future in space exploration and focus their energies and schooling in those fields of science, he does have connections in higher places, so he claims. This is the century that humans break free from the nest and test their wings for windless flight into the playground where the gods play. Exciting times lay ahead for those willing and able to make the commitment to Space.

The secretive private spaceflight firm, which
was established in 2000 by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, is developing systems
to launch astronauts to both suborbital and orbital space. While Blue Origin releases details about its plans and progress
sparingly, the company's basic business model has come out.

It all revolves around reusable rockets and
spacecraft, developed in incremental steps.

"It's really about developing and using
vertical powered landing to drive reusable systems that can increase reliability and lower cost,"
Rob Meyerson, the
company's president and program manager, said in a rare public presentation last
September at a conference in Long Beach, Calif.

"We believe our incremental, long-term
approach is going to develop the systems and technologies and vehicles that'll
result in safe and affordable human spaceflight," added Meyerson, who spoke at
Space 2011, a meeting organized by the American Institute of Aeronautics and
Astronautics. [Photos: Blue Origin's Secretive Spaceship]

Working with NASA

Blue Origin is one of four companies that
have received funding through NASA's Commercial Crew Development (CCDev)
program, which seeks to spur the advancement of American private spaceflight capabilities. The other three
firms are Boeing, SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corp.

CCDev's goal is to help get a handful of companies up and running as soon as
safely possible, so the United States has its own way to send astronauts to the
International Space Station and other destinations in low-Earth orbit. Since
NASA's space shuttle fleet was grounded in 2011, the nation has relied
on Russia's Soyuz vehicles to perform this taxi service.

"We're beginning with suborbital as a means
to gain that experience, gain that practice that'll lead on to orbital human
spaceflight," Meyerson said.

Suborbital: New Shepard

Blue Origin's suborbital vehicle is called
New Shepard. The name is a nod to NASA astronaut Alan Shepard, who became the first American in
space when he launched on a brief suborbital flight on May 5, 1961.

New Shepard consists of two reusable parts:
a crew capsule and a propulsion module. A few minutes after liftoff, the
propulsion module separates and heads back to Earth, eventually making a
vertical, rocket-powered landing near the launch site (Blue Origin's private
spaceport about 25 miles north of tiny Van Horn, Texas).

The crew module, which is designed to carry
three or more people, coasts on to the edge of space before returning to Earth
as well, its descent slowed by parachutes.

Blue Origin envisions multiple uses for New
Shepard. It could carry tourists interested in experiencing microgravity and
seeing the curvature of Earth against the blackness of space. The company also
hopes scientists will book flights on the vehicle to take experiments up to
space.

When it's fully developed, New Shepard
should allow people to get to space relatively quickly and efficiently,
according to company officials.

"The system design is optimized for rapid
turnaround with a very small ground crew," Meyerson said. "We're talking tens of
people, as opposed to thousands in previous reusable vehicles."

Blue Origin has conducted a handful of
flights with suborbital test vehicles since 2006, including two in 2011. The
second of last year's flights, which took place on Aug. 24, resulted in failure;
the "PM2" vehicle crashed after reaching an altitude of about
45,000 feet (14,000 meters).

Orbital: The Space Vehicle

Blue Origin is also working on a manned
vessel for orbital flight, a biconic craft called the Space Vehicle (SV).

"This development builds on our suborbital
New Shepard crew capsule development," Meyerson said. "The lessons we learn in
that program roll directly into the SV, the orbital system development."

The Space Vehicle is designed to transport
up to seven astronauts to low-Earth orbit, though it can also carry a mix of
cargo and crew, Meyerson said. When the spaceship comes back to Earth, Blue
Origin wants it to touch down on land, with water landings as a backup.

Blue Origin is designing a reusable
first-stage booster to help get the Space Vehicle to orbit. Like New Shepard's
Propulsion Module, this rocket will return to Earth and make a vertical, powered
landing.

"Then the orbital booster can be refueled
and launched again, allowing improved reliability and lowering the cost of human
access to space," Blue Origin officials write on the company's website.

Blue Origin doesn't release schedules or
timelines of its projected progress. But Meyerson said the Space Vehicle might
be ferrying astronauts to and from the space station in less than five years if
all goes well.

"In our proposal with the government
funding that we laid out, we believe [operations could begin] between 2016 and
2018," he said.